


Incentives

by perletwo



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: First Meetings, Gen, Meet-Cute, Pre-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-16
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-04-23 15:31:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14335536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perletwo/pseuds/perletwo
Summary: If the world is about to end, there's really no time for subtlety. Also, there's Thor, mortal enemy of subtlety.





	Incentives

**Author's Note:**

> Unbeta'd. Open to criticism, as I've seldom written Darcy or Bucky before, much less together.

Bucky checked through his gear for the fifth time, trying to project enough confidence to stop Steve and Sam's sidelong glances - wariness and compassion, in different mixes - and trying to avoid Natalya altogether. (If this was really the End of Days, best leave that bit of business unfinished for eternity.) From another knot of conferring troops on the other side of the vast hangar came a booming laugh and a shouted, "SERGEANT BARNES!"

"BUCKY!" he answered by reflex, and immediately wished he could yank the word back. 

Looking up, he saw - really and sincerely Thor the Thunder God, he had to believe as Stevie seemed to - with a gal in tow. Literally - Thor had her by the elbow and while she had a good stride, there was more than a hint of dragging in her efforts to keep up. They had broken off from a huddle with an older mad scientist type, a guy in a red cape even bigger than Thor's, and a faintly mischievous Shuri, and were headed his way at a rapid pace.

"FRIEND BUCKY!" Thor clapped him on the shoulder (thankfully, the metal one) and pulled the young lady up to his side. "I come to grant the boon wish of my good friend the Lady Darcy!"

Thor's gal shimmied awkwardly and cleared her throat, then pushed forward, grabbed his good hand in both of hers and shook it vigorously. "Erm. Hi. Darcy Lewis, here. I told Thor I couldn't let the world end without meeting Captain America's much hotter buddy - _yeah_ , that's _you_ , dude - and I mean, here I am and here you are and well, what better chance are we gonna get?" 

Bucky barked out a startled laugh. Winking, Thor backward-walked out of the introduction and nearly ran down a curly-haired guy heading for the science huddle. 

Bucky looked down at the clasped hands Darcy was still shaking. "Erm. Wow. Thanks, and I really want to tell Sam Wilson you said that, but, I gotta know - if you're this excited just to meet me, how'd you handle meeting _Thor_?!"

"I tased him," Darcy said, and broke off the handshake with a modest shrug and a sly smile. Bucky laughed again and took a long look at her. She was, he realized, the great-granddaughter of his teenage fantasy femme fatale. Long dark hair in shiny waves framed a pale oval face with big blue eyes. The sooty lashes, winged liner and red lips and nails were straight out of 1944, and a short-sleeved black sweater nipped at the waist over a black pencil skirt showcased generous curves and long limbs. She'd accessorized with a cardinal-red beret pinned at a jaunty angle, a red bakelite brooch and bracelet and very high sling-back heels in a matching red. "No. Really? But, now you're Lady Darcy to him?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, my boss Jane ran him down with her car - twice! - and she was totally like the great love of Thor's life, like, right away. So there's that." Darcy's smile brightened a few watts. "They broke up - it was a whole thing with Loki and, like, evil elves, y'know - but Jane the Science Brain thinks she maybe knows something about the red Infinity Stone, so she's Skype-ing in with the brain trust over there - you know about Skype?"

"Video phone calls, right?" She nodded. "But you're also in there with the science brains."

"Oh. Me? Noooo. I'm just, like, Dr. Selvig's minder. His head got really messed with in the Battle of New York. I mean, don't get me wrong, super-genius dude, but just he sometimes needs someone to tell him to button his shirt and tie his shoes." Her brows rose. "Or, well, how to button his shirt and tie his shoes. Loki gave him a giant brain boost, but the downside is, he tends to drift off into Abstract Land. Oh for the good old days when he was all, 'But Jane! This surfer dude can't possibly be a Norse God!'" 

Bucky laughed again, and she continued, "You got a nice laugh, you should use it more often and maybe also dance 'cause I bet you got some moves, y'know?, and erm, does that hurt?" She tapped a long nail against his metal shoulder.

He glanced down at her hand on his arm. "Some. Less now, the new one's lighter. I'm used to it. Everybody's got something, right? But, uh. Dancing. D'you swing?" He winced. "Yeah, that's - not right anymore, I know - swing dancing. Forties and Fifties style."

"Erm. Kinda-sorta-if you squint-maybe?" She lowered her eyelids modestly. "Miss Coordination I'm not but what I lack in grace I make up for in enthusiasm?"

"I can work with that," Bucky said, and smiled more easily than he had since re-connecting with Steve for Apocalypse Patrol. "They still have dance halls for swing around these days?"

" _Dude_. Have you been through New York lately? It. Has. Everything." Darcy giggled. "And if it doesn't we'll just make up our own."

"That works." They beamed at each other a moment longer until Steve's shout broke the moment. "Gotta go." Darcy waved and retreated to the science corner, while Bucky gathered his gear and joined up with Steve and Sam. 

He clapped Steve on the shoulder. "Stevie, my boy, we gotta go save the world this one time, okay?" he said heartily.

"...Okaaay?"

"'Cause I got a date to go dancin', pal, and unlike you, ya jerk, I really wanna keep it!"


End file.
